Yorkshire Water awards 1.3 million smart meter rollout

Britain’s Yorkshire Water has selected Swedish IoT operator Netmore Group to lead the exchange of 1.3 million water meters with LoRaWAN smart water meters.

The contract, Yorkshire Water’s second with Netmore Group, is for an initial term of 5 years, plus data services for the meters installed up to 2045.

Under the terms of the award, the programme includes the delivery, installation, commissioning and maintenance of the smart meters, which will be connected to Netmore’s LoRaWAN network for the delivery of data-as-a-service to Yorkshire Water.

Working with Netmore and customers will be locally based Morrison Water Services to deliver the exchange in what is believed to be one of Europe’s largest LoRaWAN water metering projects to date.

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“By moving to smart meters we can better understand water demand patterns and target water efficiency activity,” says Adam Smith, manager of smart networks and metering transformation at Yorkshire Water.

The new contract is planned to run concurrently with the earlier award to Netmore in 2022 for a 360,000 household LoRaWAN smart meter deployment, primarily for new developments and those opting for domestic water metering.

Smith comments that since the start of that programme, 500,000l of water has been saved in identifying leakage on customers pipes and the data also has helped to improve understanding of water demand patterns.

“The expansion of the project will enable us to continue making these improvements and ultimately provide customers with a better experience.”

Yorkshire Water’s plan with its smart metering programme includes a 50% reduction in leakage, a reduction in per capita consumption to 110l per day and a 15% reduction in non-household water demand by 2050, all compared to the 2020 levels, along with improved customer service.

The meter exchange programme, mostly for meters reaching end of life, is expected to begin in South Yorkshire in 2025, subject to final regulatory determination by Ofwat due in December 2024.

The new smart meters will be fitted predominantly in the same location as the existing meters.